Many scientists, environmental agencies, governments, corporations and individuals are increasingly concerned about the costs and/or environmental impact of energy generation and consumption. Increasing energy consumption in homes and offices is a major contributor to carbon emission. In addition to increases in average consumption, peak energy consumption in domestic and industrial environments is growing even more rapidly. This is a particular additional concern, since meeting peak energy demands will require the upgrade of existing power generation facilities and/or the construction of new power plants if severe consequences are to be avoided, such as power outages or load shedding.
As such, the increasing cost of energy production and consumption, and its impact on greenhouse gas emission and climate change, are considered to be amongst the most urgent challenges facing the global community. Approaches to reducing carbon emissions, such as the use of low emission generation technologies, including wind, solar, tidal and so forth, as well as other carbon reduction technologies, such as carbon capture, will require many years of development, and substantial investment, before they are able to provide significant reductions in emissions. Even then, in the face of increasing population growth and ongoing advances in developing countries, improvements in efficiency of energy usage and reductions in individual energy consumption will be essential to creating sustainable energy markets.
Accordingly, there has been a significant push from many governments and environmental agencies to reduce both the average and peak power consumption within homes and offices. However, this is difficult to achieve in the absence of detailed energy consumption metrics. For example, most home owners and office administrators have no tools or facilities which would enable them to determine where and when energy is being consumed. Furthermore, even if the source of consumption is known, it may not be apparent how that consumption can be reduced. Therefore, while promotions to encourage users to reduce consumption have started creating more widespread awareness of the issue, the ability of typical consumers to respond to these promotions is generally limited.
At the same time, there is an increasing deployment around the world of more advanced metering systems, such as “interval” or “time-of-use” meters, and more sophisticated “smart meters”. Whereas conventional meters simply record total consumption, without maintaining any records of time of use, these more advanced meters are able to identify and record energy consumption in greater detail, for example on an hourly, or even more frequent, basis. Smart meters differ from older interval meters in that the former generally also include at least automated meter reading functions as well as other features such as real-time monitoring, power outage notification, and/or power quality monitoring. Automated meter reading, in particular, requires meters to include appropriate communications technology, which may be based on RF (wireless) transmission, power line communications protocols, and/or other networking technologies, which enable the meters to transmit usage data back to the power supplier for monitoring and billing purposes.
Amongst other benefits, smart metering technology enables the implementation of time- and/or demand-dependent tariffs, which provide users with an incentive not only to reduce their average consumption, but also to avoid consumption at peak times, where possible, which assists in reducing the overall peaks in domestic and industrial energy consumption. However, the full benefit of such technologies can only be achieved if users are equipped with the necessary information regarding their energy usage, and empowered to act effectively on the basis of that information.
Accordingly, while the technological infrastructure enabling consumers to improve their behaviour is becoming available, there remains a need to provide users with effective tools and facilities for reviewing and acting upon the available information in an effective manner. In order for a solution to be practically deployed in a large proportion of domestic and industrial premises, it must be of relatively low cost. Furthermore, an effective solution must be easy for end-users to understand and operate, and should be capable of providing significant benefits when used with existing (ie legacy) appliances without requiring significant upgrades to existing wiring. The present invention seeks to address these needs.